


The Red Wedding

by LevixEren_ToTheEnd



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Catelyn POV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-27
Updated: 2016-03-27
Packaged: 2018-05-29 11:14:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6372532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LevixEren_ToTheEnd/pseuds/LevixEren_ToTheEnd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Catelyn Stark's perspective of the Red Wedding, as it happens in the TV Show. I thought it would be interesting to write with inspiration from the chapter in the books to give show watchers an insight into Catelyn's mind. A huge part of the emotional impact of the Red Wedding, for me, was Catelyn's thoughts, so I really enjoyed writing this. Obviously credit goes to George RR Martin as Catelyn's thoughts from the book inspired me here.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Red Wedding

She watched Robb and Talisa kiss in the dim light of the room, and though she knew the baby in Talisa’s belly had been planted by a seed of dishonour, she could not help but smile at her son and his love. _Love makes us do questionable things_. _Dishonourable things_. She remembered when she had freed Jaime Lannister in the midst of her own grief. Robb was fighting in the Westerlands and she had no one but Brienne of Tarth for company. She needed her girls, Arya and Sansa. She had since come to terms with the fact that Arya was most like dead, but she dared to hope. A mother's hope. _I can only hope Brienne is bringing them to Riverrun or the Twins at this very moment_.  
A man walked passed her, a sullen look on his face as he shut the great wooden doors of the room with a loud creak. The musicians had started playing a different song, Catelyn realised. It barely took her a second to comprehend it. She turned her head to watch the men on their instruments. _The Rains of Castamere_. _A Lannister song_.  
The tune sent an awful chill through her, but she ignored it. _You are a feeble woman_. _Aged with grief…it has turned you too paranoid_ , she told herself. She thought she could hear a wolf whine in the distance. She turned back to the feast as Lord Walder Frey raised his left hand to silence the attendees. “Your grace,” he spoke. Robb turned to face him, and Catelyn sat by Roose Bolton to listen to the old man’s words. _He will find some way to insult Robb, or taunt him, I know it_. _But Robb is wise beyond his years_. _He can handle himself_. Despite knowing this, Catelyn still felt weary. Walder Frey was not a man to be taken with a grain of salt. He and his family had been grievous wounded  by Robb’s dishonour, she knew. He had made sure to make that clear to them when he made Robb apologise to all of his wives. “You could have had anyone of them,” he had said.  
“I feel I’ve been…remised. In my duties. I’ve given you meat, wine, music…but I haven’t shown you the hospitality you deserve.” As Lord Walder was speaking, she turned to face Roose Bolton. He met her glance, and looked at her for a few moments with a smirk. He looked down to his arm, and her eyes followed the motion. “My King is married and I owe my new Queen a wedding gift.” Catelyn noticed something hiding under Lord Bolton’s sleeve, and she tugged it back to find armour. She raised her eyes to meet Roose’s once more, and she saw it in his eyes. _We have walked into our own graves_. Suddenly, she stood up, and slapped Roose Bolton in the face, so hard she may have broken his lip. But that didn’t matter. “ _Robb_!” She called as Roose scurried away. As her son turned to face her, Lothar Frey moved to Talisa and stabbed her repeatedly in her belly, the belly that was home to Robb’s heir. Robb stared as Talisa screamed, his eyes telling Catelyn that he did not know what was happening. _He is shocked…vulnerable_. As Catelyn stared in her own state of shock and disbelief, Robb was struck by two arrows from somewhere above. Catelyn looked up to find that the musicians that had played _The Rains of Castamere_ were now crossbowmen. More arrows strummed, throats were slit and bodies were cut down. More arrows were fired at Robb, and he was struck down. Catelyn could hear screams, shouts and pleads all around her. As Talisa fell to the floor, she stared down at her, her mouth open. She was paralysed, but she knew she had to get to Robb. _My son_. _I must protect my son_. As she made her first step, however, her back was struck by an arrow, and she fell to the cold ground as the men around her were. Though her back was on fire and her head was pounding, she managed to move herself under a table. She spied Walder Frey looking at the slaughter around him with greedy eyes and a grin. He raised his hand as he saw Robb move, and a man had his throat slit before the death toll paused and the room went eerily silent. “The King in the North arises,” Walder Frey declared as he saw Robb rise and struggle to get to his wife’s body. He put his hand over her shredded belly, and raised her body to look into her dead eyes with his ones, his eyes that told of lost hope. _I must find a way to save him_. _My son_ … Catelyn noticed that a dagger was on the floor a few feet away from her, and that  Lord Walder’s wife was hiding under the dais with teary eyes. _My son…I must save my son_. She grabbed the knife and hurried to Lady Frey, who looked at her with a shocked face before she was dragged by her hair from under the dais. The girl’s body slammed against the floor at the steps of the dais before Catelyn put the dagger to her throat. “ _Lord Walder_ ,” she declared. Walder Frey and the musicians-turned-crossbowmen turned to her. “Lord Walder, _enough_. Let it _end_! Please. He is my son. My _first son_.” _And my last_. “Let him go and I swear we will forget this. I swear it by the old gods and new, we will take no vengeance!”  
“You already swore me one oath right here in my castle. You swore by all the gods your _son would marry my daughter_!” Robb was still holding Talisa’s dead body.  
“Take me for a hostage! But let Robb go!” She turned to her son. “Robb, get _out_. Get out and walk out. Please. _Please_!” she  pleaded desperately. Robb did not seem to hear her. _My son_ …  
Lord Walder cackled in his seat. “And why would I let him do that?”  
Catelyn yanked the girl's head up by her hair, her blade and the hand that held it trembling. "On my honour as a Tully," she spoke in a hoarse voice, "On my honour as a Stark. Let him go, or I will cut your wife's throat.”  
Lord Walder looked at her and the carnage around her in mild disinterest before answering her. "I'll find another," he replied with an emotionless voice. He smiled his yellow teeth at her.  
Robb rose from his knees, arrows in his chest, knees and sides. His hands were stained with blood from where he had caressed Talisa's belly. _Robb has lost his child as I have lost mine. Rickon, Bran, Arya..._  
“Mother…,” he barely whispered in a faint voice. Catelyn’s vision was blurry due to the tears pooling in her eyes. Her mouth twitched and her body shook. Instead of a King, she saw her son. Her first son and her last. She saw his blue eyes, his Tully auburn hair, his Stark honour. Roose Bolton stepped up to him, a weapon that Catelyn could not see firm in the grasp of his right hand. “The Lannisters send their regards,” he said, thrusting it through Robb’s heart. Catelyn shook uncontrollably as she saw the light drain from her son’s eyes, and sobbed silently. Robb fell to his knees and slid backwards. _My first son and my last. Ned, our son. It hurts so much, Ned. So much._  
Catelyn screamed. She dragged her blade, slick with sweat, across the eighth Lady Frey’s throat. The girl’s eyes rolled backwards as she fell to the ground with a thud. _I swore on my honour_. Catelyn Stark sat alone. _Ned…take the pain away_. She had no family and no purpose. Her soul was lost before her body. A man stepped behind her and slit her throat with a sharp cut, and the woman who had once been Catelyn Stark, treasuring family and duty above all else, fell to the floor with a thud just as Lady Frey had.


End file.
